Quest Baits Blog

by Shaun Harrison

Pellets are banned! Don’t use pellets in the winter! Pellets kill carp! Pellets seal the water’s surface and deprive the lake of oxygen!

Mmm, where do I go from here?

All four statements in the above can be classed as true. The biggest problem we have is the word “pellet“. It is so vague that the mere word has created a problem on so many waters. Pellet is simply a word describing a small parcel of food; food turned into pellet form; food which has generally been compressed under huge pressure then dried. Yes, there are pellets which can cause problems, but there are an awful lot of pellets which can benefit a water and its inhabitants by their inclusion.

Let’s run through a few different types of pellet which are commonly used and look at them in turn. continue reading…

Andy Stansfield wrote;

I’m going to France end of April just found out now its a boilie and fake bait water what do u think would be best to take with me? 

Hi Andy,

I can highly recommend the Rahja Spice Shelf lifes. Went to France three times last year (end of March, 1st week May & 1st week in October) and used the Rahja on all occasions. Fished through sleet, snow, freezing conditions, fog and red hot days and found that the carp still fed on the Rahja.

So it really is an all round bait for various water temperatures.

I had always been of the belief that frozen was better than shelf life but after using the Quest shelf lifes I wouldn’t bother with all the hassle of trying to keep frozen baits fresh when going abroad. The shelf lifes will catch you plenty of fish and as long as you don’t get them damp they will last months.

Regarding artificials I would look no further than the Enterprise Tackle range of fake baits. I have caught plenty of fish using the fake maize over hemp or pellet.

Also well worth a try for something a bit different is to use a piece of fake corn on top of a standard boilie bottom bait. Keep the swim topped up on a little and often basis ie. after every fish.

If you go in all guns blazes and put loads of bait in to start with you could ruin your chances. If the fish aren’t feeding straight away you will end up with a load of bait in your swim which you can’t take out.

Have a good one, Pat

Question from Roger Mills;

Hi, I propose to put some order into my carp fishing and use a marker system to identify underwater features.  I see there are various rods on the market. What test curve would give the best response when trying to find lake features?
Regards, Roger 

Hi Roger,

For all my marker float work I use a stiff (tippy action) 3lb test curve road.  

A through action rod is not much use as all the knocks and bumps from bottom features are absorbed by the through action of the rod. 

The action of the rod is much more important than the test curve.  Using braided line also helps to “feel” the contours of the bottom, but in my experience you will need a mono leader with it as the increased friction of the braid will stop the marker float popping up. 

Hope this helps and good luck.Jim Kelly

Question by Martin Almey;

Hi there,

I am off to Maurepaire this May for a week (booked thru angling lines) and was wondering if I could get some advise on de & rehydrating my baits as there are no freezer facilities at this lake.

I have always fished with frozen baits and usually take my baits out the freezer the night before and leave them to defrost/semi-dry.

I then just use them as they are without rehydrating at all but the baits only last 36-48hrs before they are off.

Can you give some advise on how to keep say 10kg of boilies at their best for trip to Maurepaire?
Thank you in advance, Kind regards, Martin.

Hi Martin,

I normally take my baits frozen, by that I mean straight out of the freezer as I am loading the car. I will then wrap them in a few bags to stop leakage of moisture onto any of the other gear.

Upon arrival at the lake I place them under the bed chair for the first night as I am generally too busy and tired to mess about. After this I place them in air drying bags (the key is to not place too many in each bag). They harden up over the course of the week but if you keep turning them in the bag and keep them away from moisture they should be just fine like this.
Another option is to air dry them at home a couple of weeks before you set off. A good way of looking after them is by then placing them in a cardboard box with either salt or pellet as these will both further draw the moisture from the bait.

If you then feel the need to re-hydrate them I would recommend Shaun’s approach of soaking them in hemp juice. You can see how to do this on the Quest website & Blog, as Shaun has written about it in his Carpworld articles.

Alternatively you could take Questbait shelflife boilies. I have always prefered freezer bait myself but believe me these shelflife baits are fantastic and hold their own against the freezer baits comfortably.

Just a bit more information for you;

I fished Maurepaire in August 2005 and had a pretty good result, if you take a look on the Angling Lines website you will see my article.

We fished peg 3 and I was casting right in front of peg 2 at about 120yards (roughly). I cannot say the situation will be the same when you go but I got through 30kilo of Rahja during the week and about 5 kilos of hemp if memory serves me correctly. Obviously this may not be the approach to use during the week when you go but it may be worth taking a few bags of shelf lifes just in case. You can always bring them home.

I hope some of this is helpful and it would be great if you could let me know how you get on.

Thanks, Jamie

Question from Tom Booth; 

“Just wondering what is your best bait and why?” 

Hi Tom, 

That is a very broad question!  We have put together a range of baits to cover as many types of fishing situation and bait application, that anglers are likely to come up against. I have drawn on the near thirty years I have been involved in carp fishing to produce it. The range now consists of eight different boilies, including fish meals, bird foods and a liver base mix.  

Not all these baits have the same application. continue reading…

Dear Shaun;

I just got some of your bait and am very pleased with it. Yet to catch with it but I’m sure it will bring results soon. I am fishing a 3 acre lake which I have caught plenty of fish from with a good stock of doubles and 20s. It is shallow with most areas being 3-4ft or less. The bottom is mainly silty with some harder areas in places. There is a large island in the middle of the lake.

On recent sessions I have been having terrible problems with birdlife picking up the bait. It is mainly tufties. This problem even persists during darkness. I never had it quite so bad before, admittedly this is worse in winter time. Do you have any suggestions how to combat this?
Many Thanks, Cliff

Hi Cliff,

I have faced this situation myself on one or two waters. It is always worse in the winter when there is not so much natural food about for the tufties & coots so they are obviously looking for something else to eat. Also in the winter the water tends to be much clearer (unless it’s overstocked) thus making it easier for the tufties to find your bait.

There are a couple of things you can do which may help you:

1. Bait up when you are not fishing and in different parts of the lake. The water you are fishing sounds reasonably small and so by baiting up different area’s the carp will still find plenty of the bait and soon get a taste for it. I have found that the Quest baits are pretty instant anyway. continue reading…